Posts Tagged ‘Downtown Cincinnati’

Shots of Great American Ballpark during the Paul McCartney show.

Here’s the entire gallery. Enjoy!

Ok, so that’s a goofy reference to a Willie Nelson song. But since it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything to BluegrassPhotography.Net  I thought I’d start this post out goofy.

It’s been a while because the weather here in the Cinicinnati Tri-State area has been horrible. Although we know it could be worse. All we’ve had to deal with is rain every day. If we think that’s bad, we need to think about the people in the mid-west that have had everything taken away from them by Mother Nature’s furry.  As a matter of fact, this post is dedicated to them!

Back to the photograph….. For some unknown reason, I find myself shooting the “Big Mac” bridge quite often. I have no idea why. It’s not like I have a thing for McDonald’s. As a matter of fact, unless I’m desperate I won’t even eat there. I do however drive past, or over the “Big Mac” every morning so I guess it catches my attention. On this particular morning I approached the river and saw the fog, so I decided to head towards the riverfront in Bellevue and see if there was a good shot to be had. I ended up on Don Pablo’s deck at 7:30 in the morning to grab this image.

For those “photo geeks” out there, this image is comprised of 20 vertical shots stitched together to create a 13000 x 4000 pixel image at 72 dpi! For those non-photo geeks, it’s big enough to make a 200″ x 60″ photograph!

Again, as we complain about our weather…. it could be worse! Please keep the mid-west tornado victims in your prayers and if you find it in your heart to help financially you can do so here.

I love contrast in a photograph. In this case, historical contrast. This was an awesome find! I saw this sign back in February from atop a parking garage in downtown Cincinnati. The weather was just not suitable for shooting but I took note to return at some point and shoot these two department store signs.

I’m not a big Macy’s shopper, but more of a “remember Shillitos” person. I have fond memories of my mom taking us down to Shillitos to view the Christmas windows, and have our picture taken with Santa Claus. That’s back when everyone traveled to downtown Cincinnati to take in all the holiday festivities. I don’t remember frequent trips to downtown, but I sure do remember those holiday trips! How about you? Although the dates do not match up, my memories have me in line with Ralphie from “A Christmas Story”.

How about you? Remember Shillitos, standing in line for Santa, taking in the windows downtown or Christmas on Fountain Square?

Here’s a few more of the Shillitos and Macy’s signs. Enjoy!

I love old brick walls. Even better than an old brick wall showing it’s age with slight deterioration is an old brick wall with an old hand-painted sign on it. If you’ve browsed my galleries at all you’ve probably ran across some of my images capturing these old marks in advertising history. Every time I find a sign on an old brick wall I find myself wondering about it’s history. Who painted the sign, Is the company represented in the sign still in business, are there other signs hidden beneath the visible sign?

Today I ran into a sign (maybe best described as artwork) that may very well be the subject of a photographer wondering the same things in the future, I wonder today. Driving through downtown Cincinnati I ran into a sign being created right before my very eyes. Portuguese-born Alexandre Farto has been commissioned by BLDG, a Covington based studio, to create Cincinnati’s own original “Urban Structure” as Alexandre describes his art.

VHILS is the tag name of Portuguese graffiti/street artist Alexandre Farto (1987—) He gained prominence when his work of a face carved into a wall appeared alongside a picture by street artist Banksy at the Cans Festival in London in 2008. Not long ago, street artists were objects of scorn, stigmatized to the point of risking jail time in order to smear their messages in alleyways and on overpasses. Lately, however, with a growing public appreciation for all things graffiti, urban communication is no longer such a target of public disdain, but rather is increasingly being appreciated as high art.

Here’s the rest of the gallery. Enjoy.

BLDG will be hosting a release event Friday, April 15 from 7-11 PM. For additional information visit the BLDG website.

Looking for something to do this Friday night? How about a walk along Fairfield Avenue in Bellevue, Kentucky? You’ll find a wide selection of shops at “First Friday” – a monthly event along the avenue. There’s a great selection of shops, galleries and cafes. Park your car and walk along the avenue and you’ll soon find yourself relaxing and forgetting the busy week you’ve just experienced. It’s a great way to start the weekend! And if it’s raining, don’t let that stop you because the friendly merchants even share their umbrellas!

Along the way you’ll find the Bellevue Bistro, a cozy little bistro located at 313 Fairfield. Although the “bb” is a great place to stop anytime, this Friday is special for me because I’ll be displaying some of my photography. The owners of the Bistro are kind enough to allow local artists to share their talents by decorating the walls with their work, and after a 6 month wait, it’s my turn.

I’d love to see you for this upcoming “First Friday”, but if you’re not able to make it you can stop by the Bistro anytime in the month of April to view a wide variety of photography I’ll have on display.

Hope to see you there!

313 Fairfield Ave. / Bellevue, KY / 859-581-5600

Spring is in the air! Or is that rain? No matter what time the beautiful spring days show up in Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Home & Garden show always appears at the end of February. And I always end up at the show to shoot.

This year I decided to shoot the show in a BIG way. I took my pano-head tripod and shot these 360˚ panoramics. I think the gardens are the best part of the show so that’s mainly what I shot. I did however shoot the Watson’s booth also. Watson’s is one of our clients at White Design Studio and this year we designed their booth. Watson’s went BIG this year with what I assume is the largest booth at the show, so I figured I’d go BIG with my photos.

Check out the interactive panoramics by clicking on the photos below. You may notice some lag at first but after the entire panoramic loads you’ll be able to smoothly glide through the 2011 Cincinnati Home & Garden Show.

Enjoy!

If you live in the greater Cincinnati area you know how they warned us all day yesterday and last night of the “great snowstorm of 2011″. Although we did get snow, I’ve certainly seen much worse. Since most people didn’t work, or left work early to beat the rush hour craziness, my drive home from Mariemont to Fort Thomas was rather peaceful. So peaceful that I decided to go through downtown and see if I could grab a shot of Fountain Square. The traffic in downtown Cincinnati seemed more like 5:00 on a Sunday morning than 6:00 on a Thursday night. As a matter of fact I actually parked in the middle of 5th Street, ran over and grabbed some shots. Since I did a “shoot and run” I didn’t take the time to take  my tripod. That was a mistake. This is one of those photos I’ll always look back on and think of a dozen things I could have done better. But I’m fine with that. After all my purpose for shooting Fountain Square tonight was to capture that snowy moment in time and I feel like I’ve done that.

Enjoy!

I’ve been wanting to get into this Church along Freeman Avenue in downtown Cincinnati for a couple of years now. I actually went to shoot it about a year ago very early on a Saturday morning. I ended up not going in because as I approached the entrance I noticed fresh prints in the snow. As much as I enjoy shooting these old buildings, it’s not worth what may have been awaiting me in there. Of course it could have been my imagination I suppose. Still yet, I chickened out!

Having this place in the back of my mind ever since, I jumped at the chance to go shooting with another local “Abandoned” shooter. As a matter of fact this shooter happens to be a sort of a mentor of mine. I’ve appreciated his work for a while and always thought it would be great to shoot with him. After becoming FaceBook fans I would throw out the occasional comments on his shots and he asked about my stuff as well. All said and done we decided to meet up last Sunday and go shooting. I told him I had been wanting to shoot this Church for a while. Although he had shot it in the past we decided to meet up. I was excited about getting into this place. So much so that I “abandoned” my wife for part of the day… her birthday! Hopefully I made up for it later that day!

Once inside, I decided this place was worth the wait. I was surprised at the condition. Yes, it was beat up but I expected a lot more destruction. I actually only saw one bit of graffiti in the whole place. We were there about an hour, although I would like to have stayed longer. I’m not overly happy with what I came out with. I forgot to take my remote shutter release which is not a good thing in such low light and the fact that it was rather cold didn’t help the situation. I suppose I’ll just have to take another trip some time.

I want to thank my shooting friend for meeting up. I’d like to do it again sometime. I haven’t asked him about using his name so for now he’ll just have to remain a mystery.

Here’s the entire gallery. Enjoy!